Claim CIL exemptions and relief

Which exemption or relief fits

Rules that apply to every claim

Send your claim on the right form to the council that collects the levy, and make sure it reaches the council before work starts. A claim lapses if you start before the council has told you its decision, and there is no relief after the event.

Self-build and social housing claimants must also assume liability for the levy (Form 2). Apart from minor development and residential extensions, you must then send a commencement notice (Form 6) no later than the day before work starts, because the start date also starts any clawback period.

While relief is in place, the levy that would otherwise have been due stays registered against the land as a local land charge until the clawback period ends, so it shows up on searches if you sell. If something happens that ends your entitlement during the clawback period, you must tell the council in writing within 14 days. If you do not, it can add a surcharge of 20% of the charge or £2,500, whichever is lower.

Self-build home

You qualify if you build, or commission someone to build, a new home that you will occupy as your sole or main residence for at least three years. A home built by a company or developer for sale does not qualify.

Before work starts, assume liability on Form 2, then claim on Form 7 part 1, where you certify that the project is self-build and that you will live in the home for three years. If the liability was originally in someone else's name, the transfer of assumed liability form (Form 4) moves it to you. Once the council confirms the exemption, send the commencement notice. Within six months of the date on the completion certificate, send Form 7 part 2 with the supporting evidence the council asks for.

If you miss the six-month deadline, the council must give you 28 days' notice before withdrawing the exemption, and it stands if you send the form before the date it gives.

Residential annex or extension

If you own your home and live in it as your sole or main residence, you can claim exemption for an extension that enlarges it, on Form 9, or for an annex, which is one new dwelling wholly within the grounds of your home, on Form 8.

An extension needs no commencement notice and has no clawback period. An annex needs a commencement notice, and the exemption is withdrawn if, within three years of the completion certificate, you use the main home for any purpose other than as a single dwelling, let the annex, or sell the main home or the annex separately. Selling both together to the same person is allowed.

Charitable development

A charitable institution that owns an interest in the land is exempt from the levy on a development it will use wholly or mainly for charitable purposes. A charitable institution is a charity, a trust whose beneficiaries are all charities, or a unit trust scheme whose holders are all charities. The part used for charitable purposes must be occupied by, or under the control of, a charitable institution, the interest cannot be owned jointly with anyone who is not a charity, and leaving the development unoccupied counts as charitable use.

Claim on Form 10 with evidence of the charitable purposes, such as the constitution or articles of association, and an apportionment assessment if more than one person owns an interest in the land. Send the commencement notice before work starts.

Some councils also offer discretionary relief where a charity holds the development as an investment and applies the profits to charitable purposes.

Social housing

Homes that meet the conditions in regulation 49 qualify for relief, which is deducted from the levy in proportion to their floor area. The main cases are homes let by a local housing authority; shared ownership homes where the initial premium is no more than 75% of market value and the rent is no more than 3% of the unsold share; homes let by a social landlord registered with the housing regulator at social or affordable rent, or at no more than 80% of market rent; and homes let by other bodies to people whose needs the commercial market does not meet, at no more than 80% of market rent, where a Section 106 agreement secures this.

You must own an interest in the land and have assumed liability for the whole chargeable development. Claim on Form 10 with a relief assessment that identifies the qualifying homes and their floor area and calculates the relief, and with evidence that they qualify. Send the commencement notice before work starts.

If homes stop qualifying within seven years of the start of work, or within seven years of first letting for homes let by bodies that are not councils or registered social landlords, you pay back the relief for the floor space affected. A sale does not count if the proceeds are spent on other qualifying homes or passed to specified public bodies.

Exceptional circumstances relief

Claim on Form 11 before work starts, with the assessment and your explanation. You appoint the assessor with the council's agreement. You lose the relief if you sell your interest in the land before starting, or if the development is granted another exemption or relief.